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So I am looking at the PAC-12 in this round of conference realignment and I am confused. Instead of critically examining the brand names of the teams that you might invite how about evaluating the impact your brand-name will have on a particular school? Now I completely understand the reluctance of bringing in religious institutions to a West Coast market in the broad sense. Therefore I am dismissing TCU, BYU, SMU and Baylor from this conversation. So if I am interested in adding major markets in the state of Texas with Austin off the table and San Antonio basically being an extension of the Austin market (central South Texas Market) off the table that leaves DFW area and Houston. My question is, if North Texas and the Houston Cougar are added to the Pac 12 how does it change the cultures at those two schools? Also is the change big enough to make their addition to the PAC 12 worth it to the conference? I think this would be huge for the other athletic programs at North Texas but I wonder if we start consistently selling out Apogee Stadium’s current capacity to warrant expansion? I read arguments about winning and winning big and I’m just skeptical of that making an impact at the G5 level for anything less than a 5 year run averaging 2 losses or less a season. That is an extremely tall order for ANY program except for the top 5 college football brand names. (And usually the coaches that preside over such a run leave or are at a top 10 brand name program already 🤷🏽‍♂️) So the questions I have are simple; 1. Hypothetically if counter to all reasonable expectations the PAC 12 adds UNT and Houston within the next 5 years and we are middle of the road program in that conference reaching a bowl game every other year (or one out of every 3) do we get 30k plus consistently at home? 2. And if that answer is no why is their such resistance to joining a majority Texas conference like the one proposed by the writer in Abilene?

With addition of UAB and Coastal Carolina to FBS level football I think realignment between the Sun Belt and Conference USA is in order. I have constructed my ideal version of these conferences with team that will be in them in the 2017 season. I prefer a 12 conference or less whenever possible. However geographically in made more sense to make the border between the conferences the Alabama-Mississippi state line. So my version of the Sun Belt has 14 teams. I did not divide the Sun Belt into divisions cause I don't know much about these eastern programs. I am assuming that my lack of knowledge about these programs isn't unique for your average UNT fan/student. And that is a big part of the reason I think UNT would be better off in a conference without them. None except the marquee programs like Marshall and UAB have any name recognition around here. And if the attendance for the Marshall game isn't an eye opener I don't know what else would make you consider my point. The New Conference USA ULM EAST ULL EAST La Tech EAST RICE EAST ARK STATE EAST Southern Miss EAST UNT WEST TEXAS STATE WEST UTSA WEST NEW MEXICO STATE WEST UTEP WEST IDAHO WEST The New Sun Belt UAB MTSU TROY FIU FAU OLD DOMINION WKU MARSHALL SOUTH ALABAMA CHAROLETTE GEORGIA STATE GEORIA SOUTHERN APP STATE COASTAL CAROLINA

We need reconsider our "Big 12 aspirations". The market right now is saturated and they have diluted a lot of what makes college football unique and great with conference realignment. And TV executives aren't all in like they were in the first round of super-conference creation. It looks like the only way a Big 12 expansion would be approved by their TV partners would be stealing a popular team from one the other P5 conferences. BYU is the only team available that actually has a good foothold in a new market for the Big 12. Take a look at this story featured at the link below. If you were AD besides just winning what would you want UNT to try to do in light of this information? http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/08/01/Media/Big-12-TV.aspx

Talks about three subdivisions to Division 1. Talks a lot about CUSA, though it doesn't mention UNT, but you can kinda read between the lines. Interesting offseason reading anyway. http://www.thechaosindex.com/cest-la-tv-college-football-is-about-to-change-a-whole-lot-more-than-you-realize/

The Mountain West will also be affected by conference realignment and get in on the fun. With the loss of the four teams to the Pac 12 bringing its total to eight teams, another eight will be added, making it the sixth conference with 16 teams, and the conference wont be that bad either. BYU will jump back into the conference since Independents will be an obsolete thing. The other AAC teams outside of ECU will join the MWC, and it will be a major conference west of the Mississippi. Houston will be a large and perfect market for the conference, SMU will bring in the Dallas market, and UTEP will bring in the west Texas market, plus it could have pretty good rivalry games with New Mexico. With that, New Mexico State is a big enough school to be added in, joining New Mexico, and North Texas would bring in another region of that giant state of Texas. Tulsa brings in the Oklahoma market, and Rice would simply make sense to be added since Houston and SMU will be added. Read more: http://saturdayblitz.com/2014/07/07/conference-realignment-future/

When Sheldon Dawson gave Memphis a commitment and then later backed away from it to sign with Georgia, his hometown school was a member of Conference USA. The Bulldogs’ sophomore cornerback knows that the Tigers are now a member of the new American Athletic Conference, but he was stumped when asked what league Georgia’s Saturday opponent, North Texas, plays in now. “I want to say the MAC, Mountain West or something,” Dawson said. Actually, North Texas is in its first season in Conference USA after leaving the Sun Belt Conference. Of seven Georgia players quizzed this week, only two answered correctly on the Mean Green’s league affiliation. In the age of conference expansion and realignment, it’s hard to keep up with all the changes. Even for an athletic director. “Maybe it’s sad to say but I couldn’t tell you who’s in the conference now,” Georgia’s Greg McGarity said of Conference USA. “It’s not to demean that conference. It changes. I have a hard time figuring out who’s in the ACC. …It’s all so fluid right now, it’s kind of hard to figure out who’s where.” It’s confusing for the coaches, too. Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said on a teleconference Monday, according to the Washington Post, that East Carolina, Marshall and UCF were the best teams in Conference USA. Read more: http://dogbytesonline.com/college-football-realignment-leaves-players-coaches-ads-scratching-their-heads-75363/

You know all that talk about conference realignment and schools joining new conferences and new conferences appearing out of thin air? Remember how the Big 12 almost died and the original Big East did die before spawning a pair of shiny new conferences? Well, quite a bit of that takes effect today, July 1st, 2013. Since I do this for a living and I can barely keep track of who is changing to what league and when, I’ve decided to put together a breakdown to help those of you that are getting just as confused as I am. Read more: http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/01/a-complete-breakdown-of-conference-realignment-for-2013-2014/

“It's hard to smell the roses when you're trying to scale the mountain,” football coach Gary Patterson said of the TCU renaissance. But “someday I'll look back, know that was pretty special.” TCU's pride comes from more than just its new football prowess (one of only four schools to finish ranked in the top 15 the last four years) and its new stadium and its new conference. The Frogs are as proud of how they reached the Big 12 as they are that they reached the Big 12. TCU Magazine recently displayed a “Welcome to the Big 12” spread. It opened with this: “Not by backroom politics. Not by threat of litigation. Not even by woe-is-me bellyaching. “Nope, all it took was good old-fashioned planning, fundraising, building and a whole lot of winning to get TCU from Southwest Conference castoff, through five leagues in 17 years, to BCS credibility, and finally, into the Big 12.” Read more: http://newsok.com/big-12-football-tcu-proud-of-hard-work-it-took-to-get-new-stadium-new-conference/article/3692650#ixzz20tG6smNQ

The Big East? Problems, problems, problems. New Big East commissioner Mike Aresco is in the middle of shark invested waters with only a rubber raft and a few fragile paddles as protection. Aresco is maintaining the good fight of a nation-wide conference covering 4 time zones,. But who is going to watch? That is not Aresco’s biggest concern, Keeping the core group of Big East basketball schools together is the problem. And it is growing. The Catholic schools, led by Georgetown and Marquette, kept quiet as a concession to the football money being funneled in each year. But they counted on Big East basketball maintaining its high-profile with schools such as Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville UConn and Notre Dame as the anchors. Now all be gone. Oops. It might take just one Catholic school to walk out the door and the others will follow to form an 8 or 10 school all basketball, Catholic League, which will leave a group of bewildered group of BCS wannabees in a Conference usa ,not USA ,configuration. If that happens, Big East football can officially close shop. And the next giant step towards what looks more and more like a 4 or at most five league Super Conference of 14 to 16 teams will have been taken. http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=3604

Read more: http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/college-football-realignment-winners-and-losers

We will have our boys at the press conference, will be taking pictures, providing updates, tweets etc etc etc... huge, monumental day for UNT so stay tuned as we will be covering and reporting it here. GMG!